Trying to get by...

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Moving to Amman 101

So the word is "there are allot of people moving to Amman this summer"! I would like to shed a light on the process of my move, so those who are interested in relocating to Amman might benefit. School: The most crucial issue for me personally was finding the right school for my kids; I don't want it to be too western nor too strict. After researching plenty of schools, I found out no two people can agree or disagree on the right school for "your" kids, that is one decision you need to research on your own, because different people have different experience with any school around here. My pick was Bunatolghad school in Jbaiha, the reason I picked this school is because it is American based system and most of their staff, they have E-learning, Swimming pools, new school (2 years old), they give discounts for kids who memorized the Quran, they have healthy cafeteria, they keep kids 30 minutes after school to do their homework and so on.. The bus fees are hefty, but they do have DVD & GPS! Apartment: I have looked for apartments all over and I was lucky because my search started back in March so the rent were not as bad as they would be in the summer, I rented a 3-bedroom flat a block away from school. Here are my tips when looking for a flat in Jordan; Real Estate Agents take 10JD to show you around and 1/2 month rent when you sign the lease, the only issue I had with them is their ads in the newspaper are not real, they are baits to get you to call them and they will end up showing you other apartments. I found mine by deciding which area I want to live in and I just drove around looking for apartments for rents. Building guard is a great resource for finding rentals, he knows where are those for rent in his area (not only his building) offer them tips if you found what you are looking for. I wanted a certain price on 4 payments and he got me that and the tip was 50JD. If they don’t do much other than connect you to the owner then it should be around 10JD. The Car: My advice is to get a small car from the dealership, for 2009 small Toyota payments should be around 280JD for 5 years. Personally, I shipped my car cause I couldn’t sell it, and now I'm getting a free stay up to 8 months only, then I have to take it out for good. The Move: I had to ship my whole furniture from Kuwait to Amman, I looked for Transport offices and they usually differ in prices tremendously, so you have to shop around. The law says any Jordanian citizen can bring furniture to Jordan every 5 years, but it never mentions anything about being new or used. And I can tell you from now, THEY MEAN USED FURNITURE. All new furniture will be TAXED!! You would need to show prove of residency in Jordan, mine was a notarized Rental contract. A guy brought all new leather furniture from the US paid about 6000JD. I was lucky to get away with paying only 30JD. Here is my Tip of the Day for those moving furniture to Jordan: Get the custom release agent guy to hook you up, they know their way around. When picking a moving crew, my advice is to pick some from outside the Custom building as those are pro in squeezing money out of you. The average pay for each should be around 12 to 15JD, they would ask for more after they are done saying that they were really tired and it was not worth it for them. My advice is to pick an Egyptian crew from outside the compound. That’s all I can come up with; feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions. Khaled

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting post!
One question though, did u transfer with yr current work or did u find another job first?!

Good Luck :)

PALFORCE said...

Hi Nido,

Our headquarters in Kuwait are branching out to MENA countries and I was assigned to look over Jordan.

NasEr said...

so u r settled,welcome back :)

Reema said...

Hi!
Nice to see you around again, thought you were still in Kuwait. Good to hear from you and good luck with the move :)

PALFORCE said...

Thanks Naser, not quiet settled yet, but working on it :-)

Hi Reema, keefik? where are you now? Thank you for the wishes, regards to the DH.

jaraad said...

Really helpful post. I have a question. You mentioned that tax will be cheap for used furniture but what about electronics?

PALFORCE said...

Dear Jaraad,

Greetings, thank you for your questions as I forgot to mention when loading your moving truck make sure to put all electronics next to the door so when the Custom agent comes to check your truck they will unload all furniture till all electronics are visible. So to save yourself the trouble just stack them at the very end so they will be visible when opening the truck door.

Used electronics are exempt. only new electronics and new furniture are taxed.

Khaled

Reema said...

Still living in NJ and loving it. I do visit home from time to time.

Anonymous said...

Letting you know we decided to go with bunutalghad thanks to your post and info to us while we were in Australia last year. Our son started there last week in year 1 after having a really bad time in government schooling.

Since starting at bunatalghad, he is a changed boy and loves heading off to school each morning!

Jazaks

PALFORCE said...

Dear Anon,

Glad I could help from my own experience, my kids are in 1st & 3rd and loving it and we moved next to school so we cut the bus expense. Teachers are so good and English teacher sends us emails and daughter went to her first swimming class today at school.

best of luck,

Khaled

Anonymous said...

My son had his first swimming class as well and he is over the moon! He was missing his swimming classes from back home.

This is only our second week so are going in tomorrow to meet with the English and Maths teachers. We only had the chance to meet with the arabic teacher.

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